The Mom Stop: Greater good must prevail

Tuesday

May 23, 2017 at 10:21 AMMay 23, 2017 at 10:23 AM

Lydia Seabol Avant More Content Now

Between five pregnancies, three births and surgeries that followed two miscarriages, I could buy a nice used car with what I have paid in related medical bills over the last 8 years -- and that’s with good insurance.

We are the lucky ones.

A decade ago, I wouldn’t have been able to switch to my husband’s better insurance while pregnant because I would have been considered to have a pre-existing condition. Ten years ago, a woman who hoped to soon get pregnant often had to be wary of whether she had been on her insurance plan for a year, otherwise her care might not be covered. At that time, only 18 states required insurers to even cover maternity care -- the rest did not, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

We could be turning back to the ways of old, if the Senate approves a similar version of the American Health Care Act that passed in the House of Representatives earlier this month. The result could be drastic: Women seeking maternity care under the plan could face surcharges of up to $17,000, according to the Center for American Progress.

My question is, who does this benefit? Does it benefit the expectant mothers out there, or their babies? If maternity care isn’t covered, or if insurance costs are so exorbitant that women are priced out, how many mothers will go without prenatal care? How many babies will be born prematurely? How many babies or mothers will die because they could not afford regular obstetric care?

How is this better?

Proponents of the change have said that the AHCA, if signed into law, would take away federal controls and allow states to have more power to decide what will and will not work within their state. Other elected officials have asked why they must pay for prenatal care when, as men, they don’t need it.

During a town hall meeting on May 8, Rep. Rod Blum, R-Iowa, suggested the mandatory maternity care as required by Obamacare was “crazy.”

“Get rid of some of these crazy regulations that Obamacare puts in, such as a 62-year-old male having to have pregnancy insurance,” Blum said, to cheers from the crowd.

According to the Washington Post, Barbara Rank, a retired special education teacher, was at that town hall meeting. Although she didn’t speak then, she thought about Blum’s comments and later wrote a letter to the editor to her local paper, the Telegraph Herald in Dubuque, Iowa. The letter has since gone viral on social media.

“Congressman Rod Blum in a Dubuque town hall (Monday) night asked, ‘Why should a 62-year-old man have to pay for maternity care?’ I ask, why should I pay for a bridge I don’t cross, a sidewalk I don’t walk on, a library book I don’t read?” Rank said in her letter. “Why should I pay for a flower I won’t smell, a park I don’t visit, or art I can’t appreciate? Why should I pay the salaries of politicians I didn’t vote for, a tax cut that doesn’t affect me, or a loophole I can’t take advantage of? It’s called democracy, a civil society, the greater good. That’s what we pay for.”

Something I strive for as a parent is to teach empathy to my three kids and for them to think of others often before themselves. In today’s society, one where we seem to always think of ourselves first, where “selfies” are the norm, where too often people want to know what’s in it for them -- empathy is a rare trait.

But for the future of this country, for the well-being of this society, we must think of others and not just ourselves. The greater good must prevail.

-- Lydia Seabol Avant writes The Mom Stop for The Tuscaloosa News. Reach her at lydia.seabolavant@tuscaloosanews.com.